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Lock Parts/Assemblies from Modifications

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Recon1775

Aerospace
Jul 24, 2002
137
Is there a way to lock files from being modified while having an assembly active?
I want to be able to control what I modify and protect from accidentally modifying and saving things I shouldn't especially in the TeamCenter environment that is unforgiving if you save something you shouldn't.

Thanks!
 
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You can make parts read only or you can use the function save workpart only.
 
The situation changes if you have TeamCenter or not, but as mentioned above setting the part to read only in WINDOWS is the good way to go.
I think most of us have experienced the unintentional save, and it is quite frustrating, so setting the read-write access is always a good idea.

Jerry J.
Milwaukee Electric Tool
 
In TC there is an option for "implicit checkout". If you modify a part, TC will check out the part for you "behind the scenes" as long as no one else has it checked out. Perhaps turning this option off would help avoid accidental saves.

www.nxjournaling.com
 
The check out in teamcenter works well. Data in NX should be statused in some way to make sure they get proper revisions during different design iterations. You should be able to submit your NX revision to a certain workflow in teamcenter so teamcenter can apply a released status for example.
 
Thanks you all for those suggestions. Yes the unintentional saves are extremely frustrating especially when I do it :)
Unfortunately the entire department works within Teamcenter and most people have learned from their mistakes but as new people arrive the mistakes get to be learned over and over again. I was hoping there might be something that could be set while in the session of NX that would only allow the save to occur to specific models, similar to Saving just the work part, but more so for the protection from accidentally hitting Save All. Check outs save those who have their designs checked out (or in better term Locked in Teamcenter, check out feels like a misnomer especially with implicit checkout turned on).

As for the implicit checkout I believe the organization has it sent to be on, which I find very uneasy and problematic. I might need to move up the ranks and see if I can't get someone to switch it to off so that checking out is required before a part can be modified.

Thanks all!
 
Something that I've done to make this event a little less common is to add a button for "Save Work Part Only" to the toolbar/ribbon/quick-access toolbar and remove the default "Save" button from the default role. It's not completely fool-proof, but it definitely has an impact and is dead easy to do.

Chris Abbott
TEAM Engineering
 
What Version Of NX are you using? There is a new setting in NX8.5 The reason I ask if you are using NX8.5 there is a setting that forces you to check out a part before you modifiy it. File Utilited customer defaults teamcenter integrations for nx general Check-out/ Check in policy Manual Check-out rquired for save, manual check-in.
 
That setting which Sdeters speaks about isn't new. It exists in at least NX7.5 where we had issues with it...

There are two ways of viewing this issue. with the manual checkout, EVERYBODY MUST MANUALLY checkout ALL files that they would like to prevent changes from other users to, AND the files you intend to save yourself. If you would like this setting active ( Customer Defaults) EVERYBODY MUST use the same.
We had a case where a interested user changed this setting for himself and his colleagues, the colleagues where not fully up to what it meant and one of them worked half a day on an assembly , which somebody else had checked out and saved... He wasn't happy.

The opposite is the automatic checkout (the default) as soon as something becomes "modified" in the NX session.
That will then prevent any colleagues to save that file, and they will get messages about that somebody has it checked out.
I do not agree that it's a misnomer. I think that's exactly what it is.

What we are missing in NX/ Teamcenter is an option to "Open read only state" and if /when that would exist an option to change that state file by file.


Regards,
Tomas
 
So we're using NX9 at the moment soon to move on to NX10.
When it comes to the settings this is a customer default at the NX session level?

cowski in the earlier post mentioned "TC there is an option for "implicit checkout."
Is there an option in Teamcenter to turn that on or off at the based admin level of Teamcenter?

I found this below (TC_Auto_Checkout), but that refers to non-NX datasets. Not the CAD parts created by NX.
I also found this:
"Implicit checkout of datasets other than UGPART and UGMASTER datasets can be customized by setting the TC_Auto_Checkout user preference. Implicit checkout of UGPART and UGMASTER datasets is controlled entirely by Teamcenter Integration for NX."
Where it makes a statment that Teamcenter integration can control the UGPART and UGMASTER implicit checkout, but I can't locate anything on how the admins of the system would do that.

TC_Auto_Checkout

Description
Enables or suppresses automatic implicit check out of non-NX datasets. Implicit check out automatically prevents users from gaining write access to a non-NX dataset if another user has opened it.
Valid Values
ON
Enables automatic implicit check out.
OFF

Suppresses automatic implicit check out.
Default Values
ON
Scope
Site preference.
 
When it comes to the settings this is a customer default at the NX session level? You should be able to set this setting global and lock it down so this is the customer default that user use.
 
Perfect! So this is something that can be locked by the "admins" of the system. Good to hear.
Now I need to convince someone to do it. :)
Thanks!
 
One issue we have is once this Manual Checkout/ manual checkin is selected we usually see many many different parts checked out that people have forgot to check back in. So it is easy for a user to have hundreds if not thousand of parts checked out forgot about. There is an easy search in teamcenter to do a search for objects checked out. But still a small issue for us.
 
Yeah that's the biggest complaint I've gotten from the admin level stating that having that set as default will result in a big problem of people not being able to work on items that have been forgotten by folks that didn't check them back in. It's purely opinion on both sides and both setups require instruction and process training.

My opinion is it's safer with the manual with no unfortunate save accidents while dealing with forgotten check outs. Admin level folks feel it will be a huge issue and would rather deal with accidental saves.
Oh well... I'll just turn on manual on my PC and at least I'll know what I'm actually saving. :)
 
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